"The referendum would be a reaffirmation of the people's demand, which has been long pending," the party's Delhi Convener Dilip Pandey had explained.

The party, he had emphasised, would "leave no stone unturned" to make full statehood a reality.

Nearly four months on, there is no sign of progress.

Secret plan?

Interestingly, The Asian Age and The Pioneerreported on 14 November that the AAP is set to push for a referendum on statehood in the winter session of the assembly that begins 18 November. Both newspapers claimed to have "exclusive access" to a document stating that the proposal had been sent to "the competent authority" for consideration.

But when Catch asked representatives of the AAP and the Delhi government about these reports, they denied any such plan was in the offing.

Pandey said the party was focusing on strengthening its organisation ahead of the 2017 municipal polls and the statehood referendum was not on its agenda at the moment.

However, amid all this firefighting, the party managed to work on the issues it considered important.

Reports say AAP will push for referendum in winter session. Is the party keeping is plans secret?

An special assembly session on women's safety was held, a progressive charter of women's rights was drafted by the Delhi Dialogue Commission, autorickshaw drivers were ordered to put up "on duty" and "off duty" signs on their autos, a car-free day was organised, a flyover was built cheaply and opened ahead of schedule, a grand Yamuna Aarti was arranged to indicate the state's commitment to cleaning the river.

If all this could be managed despite the challenges, why wasn't any visible work done on the referendum?

Assistant Editor at Catch, Charu enjoys covering politics and uncovering politicians. Of nine years in journalism, he spent six happily covering Parliament and parliamentarians at Lok Sabha TV and the other three as news anchor at Doordarshan News. A Royal Enfield enthusiast, he dreams of having enough time to roar away towards Ladakh, but for the moment the only miles he's covering are the 20-km stretch between home and work.